Four Public Universities Join UCC to Run the New B.Ed Programme in the Colleges of Education

Four Public Universities will join the University of Cape Coast (UCC) to run the new B. ED programme approved by the National Accreditation Board in 46 Public Colleges of Education from October 2019.

The other four Universities are University of Ghana (UG), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Education, Winneba (UEW) and University for Development Studies (UDS).

The new B.Ed. curriculum is aligned with the National Teachers’ Standards (NTC) and informed by the National Teacher Education Curriculum Framework (NTECF). Both the NTS and NTECF were approved by the Cabinet Memorandum of 28th September 2017.

Subsequently, the University of Cape Coast was given temporary approval by the National Accreditation Board to start the implementation of the Bachelor of Education programme in all the Colleges of Education in 2018. First-year students of all the Colleges of Education have since 2018 been on the B. Ed programme of the University and will be in the second year in October 2019.

The B.Ed programme is the cumulative work undertaken by Ghanaian educators under the Transforming Teacher Education and Learning (T-TEL), a six-year (2014-2020) government of Ghana programme, funded by UK aid, and is intended to transform the delivery of pre-service teacher education.

All basic school teachers would have to study and attain a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) degree aligned to the NTECF to be delivered by the 46 Public Colleges of Education in Ghana through their affiliate public universities. The affiliations have been selected carefully to ensure that each College of Education receives relevant mentoring and maximum benefit from the relationship. The curriculum has been developed to employ interactive, inclusive and innovative teaching

and learning techniques while introducing changes in the overall assessment of pre-service teachers. This is against the backdrop of the importance placed on extended periods of supported teaching in schools and the use of interactive learner-focused approaches. The new B. Ed. programme has three specialisms, B. Ed Early Grade Teacher Education, B. Ed Upper Primary Teacher Education and the B. Ed Junior High School Teacher Education programmes. The new B. Ed curriculum is expected to improve learning outcomes and ensure children are motivated to be life-long learners beyond their time in school.

In line with the above, a two-day orientation workshop facilitated by the T-Tel Communication team was organised for communicators from the five public universities to explore ways to support the roadmap for the delivery of the B. Ed programme and to address emerging communication issues.